Five suburban mayors bolt the GOP

At least five Republican mayors in Cuyahoga County switched parties Tuesday as part of a carefully orchestrated coup by Democratic Chairman Jimmy Dimora.

This increased the number of Democratic mayors to 42. There are 16 Republican mayors, Dimora said Wednesday.

"They see the dominance of the [Democratic] party structure. You might as well get on the winning team." He said the party-jumping is a backlash to Republican rule in the nation and Ohio.

Dimora noted that some, like Solon's Mayor Kevin Patton, had once been Democrats.

"The lost sheep always come back," Dimora said laughing.

Patton confirmed he switched Tuesday by taking a Democratic ballot. The low-key mayor said he did so because "I've had some concerns with the local Republican party in recent years."

He would not elaborate.

Patton said his family, including his brother, Mayor Ken Patton of Brooklyn, have been nagging him to return to the Democratic party he left in the early 1990s.

Another is Orange Mayor Kathy Mulcahy, who said she cast a Democratic ballot Tuesday (for Hillary Clinton) for the first time since registering to vote when she was 18. She is now 52. She had announced her plans to switch several months ago in The Plain Dealer.

"George Bush made me feel embarrassed to be a Republican. Ken Blackwell [former Ohio secretary of state] made me embarrassed to be a Republican," she said.

"I'm a Jewish woman who is pro-choice, anti-gun," she said. "I was like a woman in a man's body."

Dimora said he has been recruiting the Republican mayors for months. His main pitch has been that Democrats control most of the powerful political seats in Cuyahoga County, as well as the State House. "And Democrats will soon have the White House," he said.

The Plain Dealer was attempting Wednesday to confirm the remaining party switches.